Women and Girls Lead presents an online exclusive premiere of Through Her Lens, a collection of dramatic short films exploring international stories and content about women and made by women. Through Her Lens explores social issues facing women and girls worldwide through a character driven-narrative.

Premiere short films include:

Not Another Word

Written & directed by Cherien Dabis

When free-spirited Lama receives word of a distant cousin’s marriage proposal, she and her family at first laugh it off. But the conversation soon takes a serious turn, and Lama - who doesn't believe in marriage - finds herself struggling to express her individuality amid serious familial and societal pressures. An intimate portrait of three generations of women with deeply conflicting values, Not Another Word - set against the backdrop of Jordan's ongoing internet censorship debate - explores the idea that censorship starts at home.

Good Country People

Written & directed by Tanya Hamilton

Spanish Town, Jamaica, is one of the island’s oldest and poorest rural communities - it is also a war zone, where ordinary residents are pawns in a chess game between politicians and gangsters -- a violent war for the hearts, minds and votes of the local electorate. Amidst this backdrop, Blossom Edwards is forced to take over for her Uncle as the family's primary breadwinner by driving his taxi cab, exposing her to the dangerous circumstances brought on by the impending election.

Half of Her

Written & directed by Paola Mendoza

Life on a fourth floor tenement building in New York City’s Chinatown is invasively communal. Chinese immigrants live in a loft that has been divided into blocks of cubicles barely wider than a mattress. Here a very pregnant Mei struggles alone to safely give birth to her child. The child is born safely, but when the father returns home to discover that the baby is a girl, he tries to force Mei to abandon her.